This post is about you. You as a brand. You may have heard how some companies invest millions each year in their branding. Branding is probably one of the most important things in every type of business. Sometimes, after a great product or service, it is the most important thing. In short it can be what makes or breaks you as a product or company brand.

You also have a personal brand. In fact, each one of us has and to my surprise very few people know about this or at least do something about it or they might have heard about it somewhere but did not know what to do or where to begin.

We not only have personal brands, but most of us are unconsciously building it in our lives.Think about it this way: When someone hears or thinks about your name, the immediate feelings that comes to their mind is what defines your brand. That is actually how I define a brand whether for organisations or individuals; A brand is comprised of a word (in the case of a personal brand, the person’s name) and the feelings and attributes associated with it.

Now that you know what exactly a personal brand is, let’s dig in a bit deeper. Also, you should know even though there are subtle differences between personal and organisational branding, a lot of the things that you read here applies to any type of branding.

You should think of it this way: you have your current personal brand, and then you have your desired future personal brand. And there is this gap that you need to fill in order to get as close to that ideal future brand as possible. So what you do here is what matters a lot. But what are you supposed to do?

You have to start with self-analysis. This means you should document what you’re good at and what you’re not good at. What are your strengths, and what are your weaknesses. This is what you can do at the very least when it comes to self-analysis. Take a piece of paper and start writing.

Now I want to quickly mention a few very important things you need to do when you are rebranding yourself. Another important thing while doing self-analysis is defining your target audience; the ones that you need to appeal to most, the ones that pay your bills. It is very crucial to know that just like most company brands you are not supposed to make everyone happy. You have to make a target audience.

A brand is comprised of a word (in the case of a personal brand, the person’s name) and the feelings and attributes associated with it.

Today, big or small companies spend countless hours finding out the real purpose behind their brand’s existence. You need to do something similar.And that’s why I want you to forget about the word personal. Think of yourself as a company. Why? because a company delivers certain products or services to a group of people or other organisations. And you are not really that different. One way they do this step is by focusing on finding their mission and vision which is beyond just making more sales. They try to find their why.

I want you to do exactly the same thing. Start thinking and writing about your why. Think about why you are doing what you are doing now or why do you want to become who you want to become. This itself can transform your life.

There is a lot of factors involved in creating a great successful brand. But ultimately any successful brand is built by the means of great publicity. After all the effort that you put into creating the foundations of your brand, it is how you deliver it to your preferred audience that makes a difference. Otherwise there is no point in building the brand and you might end up in a situation that only your mom knows about it!

Just remember that you can rebrand yourself almost always the way you want to regardless of your current or past situation. Your past plays a role in your future and your rebranding efforts, but it cannot define it.